Beijing Transportation Tips by herzog63

'Mode': TO
Category: Train
Getting TO/AROUND: I'm not sure if there is still a 2 tier payment system for the trains in China but in 1987 there was 2 prices on the trains. "Local" price and foreigner price. The foreigner price was about 75% higher. There were also 4 classes of riding the train. Hard-Seat, Hard Sleeper, Soft Seat and Soft Sleeper. I would always ride Hard Seat which wasn't bad at all and for the longer (overnight trains) I would get the hard sleeper and I would try for the top bunk.
I would try to get someone to buy the ticket for me (local Price) and I even managed to buy a couple of Local priced tickets myself by practicing the phrase of asking for the train that I wanted! I would also get someone to write down my destination in Chinese. I would be so happy when I would be able to do it myself! I have no idea how to say those phrases any more!! Even though I don't look like a traditional Chinese person I do look a bit like the people of the Northwest China. As I had some of them approach me and speak to me in their dialect.
My 1100 KM train ticket with a hard sleeper (Top Bunk) cost me US$6.29 (33.10 RMB) at the time. It was a great ride even though I was quite sick. I had some very nice people in area of my seat that I shared food with. Not much conversation though!! ahaha
Having a local priced ticket doesn't mean that you have gotten away with anything either. You can still be charged full fare by the conductor on the train or even at the gate upon leaving the train station. All tickets are checked before exciting the train station. So I would be nervous sometimes until I passed out of the station!! hhaha

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Bus
Getting TO/AROUND: I got up early around 6:30 am to get my butt to Qianman Square to find a bus that was going to the Great Wall at Badaling and the Ming Tombs. I had been told that the buses leave about 7:30 am so I got there early to ensure I could get a seat. There was a guy there (tout) that spoke a little English and I told him where I wanted to go and he directed me to the correct booth. My ticket to the Wall and the Ming Tombs cost 6 RMB (US$1.20) That didn't include admission to the sites the 6 RMB was just for the bus. Very Cheap!! This was on a Chinese Tour bus and there was actually a person on the bus telling about what we were seeing through a loudspeaker! (Lucky for me, I had the back seat!!) but unfortuantly I didn't understand a word of it!! It was great as there were a couple of people on the bus that spoke a little English and they were trying to be helpful and explain but it didn't really matter to me. I was enjoying the sights! It was very,very cold on the day that I chose to go!! One of the bad things about taking this sort of transportation is the time allowed at the sights! I only had about an hour at the Ming Tombs which was plenty for me. And we had 80 minutes at the Great Wall which was kind of short for me. I couldn't see much at the Great Wall anyways as the Fog was so thick!!

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'Mode': TO
Category: Train
Getting TO/AROUND: After I returned to Beijing from my day at the Great Wall and Ming Tombs I took the #44 bus from Qianman to the Xixhimen train station to try to buy a Local priced ticket to Shanghai on the night train. It was another of the confusing ticket transactions for me! LOL I tried the buy it myself method which didn't work as there were a couple of the ticket sellers that spoke English and they asked for my student ID. Which I told them I had but didn't really have any! So I was told that I would have to go to the Main Railway station where the Foreigner tickets were sold....Well I didn't give up yet. LOL I approached a couple of younger looking guys and asked if they spoke English. "Yes, a little bit" "Cool" I offered to give them a little extra cash if they would purchase me a local priced hard sleeper to Shanghai. I gave them the money and they went in to buy the ticket. Well they came back out and said there weren't any available!! Hmm...seemed odd to me...they gave me back my money and just as I was about to leave the train station I ran into a Japanese guy that had helped me before! He was there to purchase a ticket for the same train that I was trying to get. I gave him my money and he purchased the ticket for me without any problems at all!!! The 1462 KM trip from Beijing to Shanghai with a hard sleeper cost US$9.29. I bought the ticket on the 12th of March for a March 14th departure. Usually you will have to buy tickets for these popular routes a couple of days in advance if you want to get a hard sleeper. Soft Sleepers don't sell out as fast as they are quite a bit more expensive.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Bicycle
Getting TO/AROUND: Cruising the wide streets of Beijing is great on a bicycle and it gets you closer to the masses! You can get a good feel for the city slowly pedaling along. There are bicycle stands at many of the destinations as so many locals use bicycles too! I don't remember the cost of the daily rental but it's very affordable.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Subway/Metro
Getting TO/AROUND: My new found friend Kimmo from Sweden and I made some plans to visit the Summer Palace. We checked out of the hotel we were staying at and brought our back packs to the train station to store them for the day. Then we went to the newly opened Subway to get to the Lama Temple to visti it on the way but we got off at the wrong stop! We hopped on a bus when we couldn't find our way there. We also tried asking a few people and that didn't work either! We had a bus map and found the bus that was going to the Summer Palace so we hopped on that! It took us three and a half hours to get there!! LOL Normal time is about one and half hours on the public bus! We had a very warm day for this and lucky I wore my clothes in layers and was able take a few off. The day before it was Very cold! In the photo is a picture of the Long Corridor. It is a 7228 Meter long corridor with paintings of Mythical Scenes. Very nice and interesting.

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